Sony (digital cameras) has recently moved its largest camera production site in the world out of the Hi-Tech Industrial Estate in Bang Pa-in, Ayutthaya province to its facility in Amata Nakorn, Chonburi. It is also planning to build a new production plant at Amata Nakorn. NEC TOKIN Electronics (Thailand) Co Ltd located at Navanakorn Industrial Estate in Pathumthani, a producer of Tantalum capacitors used in industrial, commercial, entertainment and medical electronic equipment, has announced to lay off 2,900 employees and will relocate the remaining employees to Wellgrow Industrial Estate in Bangpakong, Chachoengsao province.

As the Government has yet to release any concrete plans to prevent future floods, I wouldn’t be surprised to see further relocations either away from Thailand or to other drier areas in the country.

Related to public thai companies, should there continue to be further shifts to the Eastern region both Amata and Hemraj would benefit tremendously. Just briefly, Amata owns one industrial estate in Chonburi and one in Rayong while Hemraj has one estate in Chonburi and four in Rayong. Both companies are likely to have strong earnings this year with Amata targeting 2,000 rai contract signings for 2012, up 28% from 1,563 rai in 2011. Hemraj set itself a more conservative target of 1,500 rai for 2012, down 10% from 1,670 rai in 2011 though I wouldn’t be surprised to see an outperformance of this target.